Has A Silver Lining
by ckret2
Summary: Not all 'human' Nobodies, even if they are strong enough, make it into the Organization. Still, they all seem to meet with misfortune. Among the luckless, here's one of the most unlucky. [Oneshot][Pre CoM]


A/N: Started this months ago, and finally finished it, hee. Please note that this was started before we knew that Nobodies are given their new names by Xemnas. Also, this is set after Marluxia joins but before Larxene or Roxas join.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own Felix and the plot (and if anyone wants to borrow Felix, just ask. I don't need him anymore...)

x

... Has A Silver Lining

x

"What do you think?"

Axel shrugged. "Too nice. He won't survive a minute in the Organization."

"He was tough enough to form a human Nobody," Demyx pointed out.

"But was he tough enough to form a weak one or a strong one?" Axel asked. "His Other had a strong heart, but he might still be a wimp."

"We'll know soon, won't we?" Demyx said.

"Yeah. You might want to get your little sprinkler ready." Axel smirked. "Though we probably won't need it."

Demyx summoned his sitar. "We'd better. Luxord says he's tired of having to show Marluxia around just because he's the new guy."

Axel laughed. "Hey, you weren't a pleasure to show around yourself, water boy." He shrugged. "Besides, Organization XII has a nice ring to it."

x

By the sound of things, the mayor had finally called the court to order. The townspeople's shouting had quieted, so that now the only sound was of a couple of frantic dogs in the distance and the answering wolves.

Felix raised his eyelids up partway. He wanted to rub the gritty scum from the corners of his eyes but couldn't use his hands. He tried lift his shoulder and rub his eye on that.

Something heavy jabbed him in the neck. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Nothing." Felix straightened up, hoping that his guard wasn't a former friend.

His wrists, elbows, and knees had been bound all night. His hair, what he could see of it hanging in his face, was matted, tangled, and several dirty shades darker orange than it should have been. The rest of him probably wasn't much better. Rather than lock him up in a cell overnight, the townspeople had tied him up and left him lying in the mud in Town Square – so that "everyone could monitor the villain's actions," they said. He didn't know why they were even bothering with a trial.

"Quiet!" the mayor bellowed. A gun went off, and Felix jumped. The murmuring was silenced, and every head turned to the mayor. Felix tried to keep his eyes open. He was exhausted.

"We will now call this trial to order!" Mayor Osric McNabb swept his eyes over the townspeople, pausing only a second on Felix. He looked away. Before, he could always go to the mayor for help, and he would assist Felix with a smile. When Felix had been a child, McNabb had once shooed a couple of boys for teasing him about his bright hair. Or was that another one of Felix's imaginary memories? He could remember so many things now that he hadn't before, things that couldn't possibly be true, but he'd forgotten so many things as well.

However, he was certain that McNabb had been kind to him. And now, when his eyes settled on Felix for an instant, they shone with fear before jerking away. Felix closed his eyes wearily and bowed his head.

"This boy is on trial for sins against our entire town," McNabb declared. "For poisoning our children, destroying our crops, bringing this fog to consume the land, and for calling the monsters to the surface of this world!"

Felix braced himself for what he would hear next, but it hurt no less.

"He is accused with the crime of selling his soul to the Devil and turning himself into a witch!"

He flinched harshly as the crowd roared and jeered him. Felix was no witch. None of the crimes charged against him had even occurred. He'd done nothing; something bad had happened to him. He thought that the monsters might have possessed him. But Father Eccleston had refused to do anything for him, to try to exorcise the demons or send them away. When Felix drew near the church, the Father crossed himself and locked the doors.

He'd done quite the opposite of bringing the monsters to the world. It was hazy, but he remembered going into the forest for firewood and running into the dark monsters. They were small, black, with sickly yellow light radiating out of their eye sockets, like a ghost's lanterns. Some thought they were witches' familiars, or that they guided the witches through the night and the fog – for the fog had come with the monsters. They were the work of the Devil, that was for sure.

Felix had been the first to see the monsters and was attacked. He thought he'd blacked out for a moment, but ran back to town to warn everyone about the monsters. The monsters came into town as well, chasing him.

It was later that day, after a couple of men had scared off the monsters with their muskets, that Felix learned he had amnesia. A woman who claimed to be his mother came up to him and he didn't recognize her. He wished he had, so he could plea to this woman for mercy now, but she had gotten an uneasy look and said he didn't look quite like her son, either.

Someone jabbed Felix in the back again. "Defendant. Defend yourself."

Felix raised his head and looked at McNabb. "Well, go on," the mayor said. "Are you guilty or not?"

Felix swallowed, tried to lick his lips. His tongue was stiff and inflexible, but he tried to speak. "Not... guilty," he croaked. He could tell from the dark murmurs of the crowd that they didn't agree.

"Have you any proof of your innocence?" the mayor demanded.

"Have you any of my guilt?" Felix retorted, then coughed. His breath wheezed and rattled in the back of his throat. The mayor watched detachedly as Felix bent over and coughed up a goodly amount of green phlegm. If the town didn't kill him, illness might. He gasped in air and the fog rushed into his lungs. Surprisingly, it soothed him a little. He continued breathing through his mouth. The damp air helped saturate his dry throat.

"We have plenty of witnesses," the mayor continued. "Some saw you doing possessed dances in their fields at night, stalking their children by day, and playing games with the monsters. Your appearance has twisted over the past few weeks; you've become a different person. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I'd be glad to hear it!"

Apparently, no one did.

"Please," Felix begged. "I'm not guilty. I'm not..."

There was a screech from the back of the crowd. It spread like wildfire, heading towards the front of the crowd. Felix felt the guard at his back abandon him, and the mayor stumbled backwards. A cry spread through the crowd, repeated until even Felix could hear it. The monsters. The monsters were back.

x

Demyx glanced at Axel. "Did you do that?"

"Maybe." Axel was leaning against a chimney, watching the trial in Town Square. Demyx sat cross-legged on the roof with his sitar cradled in his lap.

"The kid needed a test," Axel said. "What better than a Heartless attack? You know the Organization; gotta be prepared for anything."

"He can't even move," Demyx said.

"That's where the 'anything' comes in," Axel said. "Besides, this isn't so bad. I heard Saix tested Marluxia by sticking him in a burning forest."

Demyx thought a moment, then snorted. "Wow. He probably felt like he was watching his children burn. Poor guy."

"Hey now, getting burned alive isn't that bad," Axel said. "I know from personal experience."

Demyx laughed shortly. "Tell that to Felix."

x

Something hit Felix in the back. He was knocked face-first in the mud with a heavy weight on his back. It hopped off and crouched down beside him.

"What's going – _gyaah!_" Felix squirmed away from the monster that had landed on him. "Don't touch me, demon!"

The monster cocked its head and skipped towards him.

"No. S-stop! Go away!" Felix tried to crawl back. He had to escape! He had to...

Felix escaped.

It was only a moment, when suddenly everything disappeared. The world went cold, black. The ropes around his arms and legs fell back as he pulled himself away from them, into the dark, and out, and he was free. He crawled the few feet to Town Hall and collapsed against the door, panting. The fog wheezed in and out with his breaths, soothing his burning lungs and rushing through his veins to his overheated muscles.

How had he crawled to Town Hall, fifty feet away, in hardly a second?

Felix shivered and stood, bracing himself against the door and facing out. The monsters were attacking everyone in Town Square. He watched the slaughter, feeling oddly dispassionate. Maybe it was because he'd forgotten so much about the people that were dying. Maybe it was because they'd treated him so badly. Yet Felix was a good, Christian boy. Shouldn't he feel something for his fellow humans?

He realized that if he stepped up and saved these people, they would have to let him go. Felix could almost hear these monsters. These Heartless, they were Heartless. He suddenly knew that he could defeat all of them if he tried.

No one noticed him as he took a few steps away from Town Hall and lifted one arm out, beseeching the fog to lend him its strength. It had healed him, and now he would use it to fight.

The fog swarmed around him, clinging to his skin and clothes. All he had on were the tattered remains of a white cotton shirt and dark brown trousers, smeared with mud, filth, and blood. Cold droplets of water slid down his skin. He could feel the fog doing something for him, pressing almost like a physical weight against his body. And suddenly, there truly was a physical weight. Surprised, he pushed back the fog to look.

Resting on his shoulder was a gun, but much larger than any musket he'd ever seen. It was gleaming silver with orange streaks dancing across its surface, like a vein of gold shining out of a rock face. It was so large the front end was supported on two narrow poles to hold it up.

He could fight with this.

Felix tilted the gun to point at one of the Heartless. It was crouching over a little girl, who had fallen on the ground in terror, crying. He pulled the trigger.

A stream of liquid sprayed out – no, it was a cloud, Felix realized – in a shining silver column and hit the Heartless dead center. It fell back with its arms flailing against the cloud with the silver lining. And then it died.

The little girl looked up at Felix's face. She screamed.

x

"Very impressive," Axel said. "A bazooka. You don't see those every day."

"Does that mean he's in?" Demyx asked.

Axel shrugged. "Maybe. There's more to getting into the Organization than fighting ability."

"Like what?"

"What else you do with it."

"Huh." Demyx smiled. "Does that mean I got in because I drowned a policeman with a water clone?"

"Probably," Axel said. "Let's see what this kid does."

Demyx and Axel both moved to sit at the edge of the roof and watched as their potential recruit killed the Heartless.

x

Felix fell to his knees in the mud. Gasping in the healing fog, his gun dissolved into the mist again, and Felix wondered at the fact that he had the power to destroy every one of the Heartless. Whatever had befallen him was not the Devil's doing. It must have been a gift from God. Felix had lost a part of his self in order to do His bidding and protect the world from the Heartless. Felix had always been a dutiful Christian; it was fitting that God would choose him.

Pushing himself to his feet, Felix looked up. The townspeople stood against the walls of the buildings surrounding Town Square. The fog made them look as gray as stone. No one was approaching him.

"It's all right," Felix said softly. "They're all gone. I got rid of them. Did you see? We're safe now."

He brushed his orange hair back. He had started sweating.

The townspeople were silent as the grave, as the calm before the storm.

"You don't think I've done anything wrong, do you? I killed the monsters. I'm no witch, I'm a hero. Please, someone say something!"

Someone took a tentative step forward. Felix turned towards him. "Father Eccleston! You saw what a good thing I did."

"What was that... thing you created, boy?" Father Eccleston asked.

Felix hesitated. "I don't know, sir," he confessed, and swallowed. "You said yourself the Lord works in mysterious ways. Didn't you, Father?"

"So does the Devil," Eccleston whispered.

"What? No!"

The stone-still people finally started moving again, fog-like phantoms, come to take him away.

"I'm innocent! No! You can't do this!" The townspeople came towards Felix with fresh rope.

"You saw what I did!" Felix screamed. Someone grabbed his wrists and tied them behind his back. "Don't you see? I could kill you if I want but I won't! Don't you see? I am good! I am no sinner!"

"The Devil's tongue is fluent in lies," Eccleston said. "No good can come of your witchcraft."

"It's not witchcraft!" Felix said.

"Then what is it, my boy?"

Felix's arms were bound behind his back. His ankles were tied together just loose enough to allow him to shuffle.

He did not answer. But his new powers were not witchcraft. They were... nothing.

"Felix, you have been found guilty of the crime of witchcraft," the mayor said firmly. "Your punishment will be death, and you shall burn at the stake for your sins. May God have mercy on your soul."

"No," Felix sobbed. The mob's cries drowned him out as they pulled him from town. A stake was always set up the night before a trial. Just in case. "I can escape and kill every one of you. I can do more damage than the Heartless ever will. You all saw it!"

But Felix wouldn't, to prove his innocence. They would have to see how willingly he let them do what they believed to be right, and they would repent and set him free. The Devil knew no restraint; Felix would show restraint by allowing the town to live. They would see he was good.

They would set him free.

x

"Begging, sniveling, and following bloodthirsty lunatics like a kicked puppy." Axel curled his nose, crouching on a branch over the stake. "Does that sound like an esteemed member of the Organization to you?"

"I dunno," Demyx said. He was leaning against the trunk of the tree. "Most of the us are bloodthirsty lunatics anyway. And if he was number XII, he'd have to follow us anyway."

"Sorry, wrong answer. Try again next week," Axel said, shrugging. "A coward has no place in the Organization."

"But he's strong," Demyx protested.

"So were Silax, Craxems, and Myxmot. We considered all of them for our ninth member. Do you know which one got in?"

Demyx paused. "None of them?"

"All of them. Physically, they were a lot stronger than you. You're a featherweight compared to them." Axel smirked. "Know why you've stuck around so long?"

"Do enlighten me," Demyx said, not taking the "featherweight" comment very well. "I'm just dying with curiosity."

"When it's time for action, you don't sit around like an idiot. You either run or fight. That's it," Axel said. "If you're in the Organization, you can't sit around and expect someone or something else to do something for you. Rely on nobody but yourself."

"Rely on Nobody, that's a good one," Demyx said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, it's true," Axel said. "Nobodies can't trust anyone, even other Nobodies."

He put one hand on top of the chimney and pulled himself on top to get a better view of the direction the townspeople were taking the potential new member. "Let's go give Felix a first-hand demonstration of that," he said.

x

Felix would not kill, but he would not be killed, either.

As the townspeople tied him up he stood straight against his stake, sullenly looking out at the others and letting them do as they wished. His emotions were deadened, and if he screamed until his throat was so raw that not even the healing mist could cure him, he would not feel as if he'd let out anything real. He didn't know if he had anything real to release anymore. As he realized this, panic threatened to overwhelm him, but it was an idle threat; the part of him that panic flooded and drowned was simply gone.

What had happened? Had the Heartless stolen something that vital to him?

How could he get it back?

For the first time, Felix truly recognized the throbbing emptiness in his chest, a raw, aching _lack_ behind his ribcage. For the first time, he stopped to feel – if "feel" was the word – what it was like to truly be Nobody.

Mayor McNabb stood and raised his hands, quieting the muttering crowd and attracting Felix's attention. "This boy has been charged with witchcraft," he said, "convicted, and sentenced to death. He even demonstrated his powers before us, using his strange dark objects to summon the monsters and then send them away. That is all the evidence we need!"

Felix looked out on the crowd with deadened revulsion. They were wrong, and somehow he managed to hold on to hope that God would see that. He had to; He wouldn't leave Felix to die before he could do His bidding...

"And now, we witness the death of Life!" the mayor said, striking a flint to spray sparks onto the pile of timber beneath the stake.

Death to Life? Was this a sick joke, Felix wondered, and almost laughed because he thought he should. It took him a long, long time to realize that Life was, had been, his own name. The Heartless had stolen something so precious to him that they had taken his name, too. He truly was just a Nobody.

He almost laughed again at the bizarreness of the idea. Didn't they also say that God hated Nobody on His world? Didn't they also say that Nobody avoided divine punishment?

It wasn't God who had given him this gift, not by any stretch of the imagination. But while Life would have been abhorred at the idea, Felix found he just didn't care.

The sparks on the tinder suddenly went out; cool mist had soaked the wood, darkening it with water. It wouldn't dry enough to catch fire for hours.

Nobody would walk out of the massacre of this village alive. Felix smiled coldly without wanting to as the townspeople, Life's former friends and family, murmured anxiously.

Felix would not be killed, and that was all that mattered.

x

"He's freeing himself," Demyx pointed out. He and Axel were standing behind the mob waiting to turn Felix into a bonfire, watching. Indeed, Felix had barely flickered out and in reality, slipping into the darkness so briefly that it was like he hadn't even gone. And when he was back, the ropes tying him to the stake had slipped off his wrists. "That's almost a trick Xigbar would pull, huh?"

Axel shrugged. "Yeah, almost."

"You aren't impressed, I take it?" Demyx said.

"Nope!" Axel stretched one arm across his chest, then the other. "We could just leave, but these hicks are starting to get on my nerves. How about we show them what real Nobodies can do?"

Demyx lifted his hands palm-up, backing away. "Hey, do what you want. I'm not getting involved."

Axel snorted. "Coward." He vanished into the darkness.

"It got me into the Organization, didn't it?" he said to no one, not realizing that he was frowning. Demyx gave the Nobody they were targeting one last look, then sighed and turned away.

"Poor kid. He could've had a great life," Demyx mused, walking away so he wouldn't have to watch.

x

Felix looked at his freed wrists, flexed them experimentally. They would never be bound again, not if he could help it. Grinning at nothing, he looked up at the townspeople. They were frozen in terror. Not a breath stirred.

As the fog rolled in, thickening until Felix couldn't see anything except the weapon that had reappeared on his shoulder, in short time not a breath could stir if it wanted to. He could faintly hear the soft thrashing of the townspeople drowning on air as they grasped at their throats, lungs so saturated that they could hardly gurgle, much less speak. He breathed the clouds into the hollow in his chest.

Soon he and the monsters would be the only ones left.

"Having fun, kid?"

Felix whirled around to see the Devil standing above him on the stake. Hair like the fires of hell, green eyes like venomous envy, and from the neck down he was as black as sin and decorated with white-silver chains. He held two red and silver metal rings covered in spikes and designs, surely an icon of witchcraft.

Felix was not afraid at all. It wasn't often one was visited by the Prince of Darkness himself, and he was generally known to act cordial. Besides, Felix somehow felt that this Satan was a lot like him.

"No," he answered honestly. He didn't think he'd find anything fun.

"Typical," Satan said. "You get used to it, if you have the chance."

Something about the statement put Felix on guard, tensing and tilting his weapon up. "Is that so, sir?"

"Yeah. It takes a while. Two, three months, sometimes four." Satan shrugged. "But that's not what we're here for, is it?" He spun his wheels experimentally.

Felix took a step back. "Did you do this to me?" he asked.

"We might've had a part in it. The Heartless didn't get here by themselves."

"I guess not, sir."

Satan smirked. "You're a mistake, though. Aren't we all?" He lifted his wheels to the sides, an attack position. "Still, we don't plan on giving you a chance to interfere with our plans."

Nobody was stupid enough to pick a fight with the Devil.

Felix lifted his gun and fired, shooting a blinding silver stream of cloud at Satan before the other had a chance to attack. He didn't even bother to dodge; he held up his wheel, smiling viciously, and the flames of hell enveloped the clouds, the gun, and Felix.

Felix couldn't scream; the air was burned out of his lungs. As fast as he tried to gasp in mist it was sucked in to feed the hungry flames. He stumbled forward, collapsing against the stake, and it burned with him.

He was aware that the cloud cover was dispersing. All of it was being pulled in to him as he tried to breath, vanishing in the climbing fire, but he couldn't stop. Soon, the sun blazed upon him in a pillar of white light, as if it were watching him from heaven.

He hadn't escaped God's judgment after all. Felix squeezed his eyes shut in pain, a Nobody's only feeling, as flames consumed the emptiness in his chest.

The townspeople, those who recovered their breaths soon enough, watched in awe as Felix died, simply dissolving into the dark vapors that must have been his corrupt soul. Standing above to receive the remains of Felix was what could only be the Prince of Darkness, undamaged by the bonfire raging beneath him. Victorious, he vanished into a doorway made of darkness. He had what he wanted.

The town would tell tales about the witch trial of Life for generations.

x

"He was a wimp after all," Axel said, sighing.

Demyx jumped. He hadn't heard Axel appear behind him. He was too busy trying to pluck out a new tune on his sitar. Letting the sitar disappear, he stood up as the five water-clones he'd had dancing splashed down into puddles. "You killed him?"

"Of course," Axel said.

Demyx nodded. "He's in a better place, I guess."

Axel snorted. "What's this? Going philosophical, water boy?"

"Hey, anything is better than life as a Nobody."

"That's true." Axel opened a portal to darkness, and gestured through, allowing Demyx to go first. They were finished with this world. "But after the kind of things Nobodies do, he probably won't be happy wherever they put him anyway."

"Hey, he may have done bad things," Demyx countered, "but his heart wasn't into it."

Axel made a half-attempt to smack Demyx on the back of the head as they passed into the darkness. "Anyway, he's gone, and we've got another possible member to check out."

"What's he like?"

"She, from what Xaldin said. She almost died from a self-inflicted gun wound, but the Heartless got to her first."

Demyx gave Axel a suspicious look. "Suicide? Doesn't sound like a very strong person to me."

"No, accident. She was trying to shoot her landlord because she couldn't pay the rent, and the landlord's son knocked her off-balance and she hit herself," Axel said. "She's killed three other landlords so far."

Demyx laughed. "Sounds good! We need a girl, anyway. What was her name?"

"Arlene."

"Huh. What can we do with that? Lexnare? Xenelra? Relaxne?"

"That one sounds like a sleeping pill," Axel said, sticking his tongue out. "What about Rexnerla?"

"You're kidding, right?"

They stepped out into the next world. Felix was already gone from their memories forever.

--End--

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review; critique is most welcome!


End file.
